Plans for lathe attachment that lets you "mill" on the lathe

[Brian Rupnow]

Looking for either plans that show how to make this fixture or pictures of finished ones installed on a lathe. My friend that is restoring the old Atlas lathe was interested when I told him about this, and then I couldn't find a picture to show him.---Brian

 

[GreenTwin]

I have the plain Myford milling attachment.
I have not used it, but I assume it can be oriented in several different ways.

Looks like one Myford milling attachment has a swivel option.
I think I would prefer not to have a swivel, but there may be applications where it could be useful.
.

 

[djc]

There is a picture (and part number) of a genuine Atlas one here:

https://www.lathes.co.uk/atlas-lathe-accessories/

Raglan appear to have copied or licensed it:

https://www.lathes.co.uk/raglan/page2.html

Have a sniff around vintagemachinery.org as they have extensive Atlas literature available for download.

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/51/2116.pdf

Boxford made a nice one for their machines (https://www.lathes.co.uk/boxford/page4.html), so there might be a Southbend version () as the two marques had a lot of similarity.

A good search phrase is 'lathe vertical slide' or 'lathe milling slide' (https://www.metallatheaccessories.com/product-page/milling-attachment-mla-5).

The Myford swivelling one was used a lot with their dividing head. See: (https://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/page3.html)

 

[Jasonb]

I don't think there are many plans about for vertical slides as they require quite a bit of milling in their manufacture which makes them a bit of a chicken & egg subject. Usually bought which then allows you to do the milling for other items of tooling.

 

[GreenTwin]

From the Southbend book.
.

 

[Tug40]

This is the Atlas 10-501, for their 10” & 12” lathes.
Shown are the MT3 endmill holders, held in the lathe spindle with a drawbar.
The double male end spigot I made so I could use it on my SB9.
These are well built, this one weighs 15 lbs.
When mounted on the crosslide they lack rigidity & are slow, & can’t take very deep cuts.
I’ve often wondered if I could use it to as a ball turning tool, as I haven’t used it since I purchased a mill.

 

[SmithDoor]

Looking for either plans that show how to make this fixture or pictures of finished ones installed on a lathe. My friend that is restoring the old Atlas lathe was interested when I told him about this, and then I couldn't find a picture to show him.---Brian

I have a few where built a angle plate that bolt where the compound goes . The bolt compound to the other side angle plate.
Then apdaed a vise to the compound and made tool plate that also bolts compound.

This what working on the Millport under $100.00

Dave

 

[SmithDoor]

Looking for either plans that show how to make this fixture or pictures of finished ones installed on a lathe. My friend that is restoring the old Atlas lathe was interested when I told him about this, and then I couldn't find a picture to show him.---Brian

Here the one way .
I do not remember how compound is bolted to cross slide on a Atlas lathe.
This works on most mini lathe and lathes using mill circler tee slote. .

A south bend has a tapper that bolt to plate very easy too. .

Dave

Drawing of Aluminum filler

I had friend of family that with and just a lathe great steam engines with this type mill. The lathe was a change gear flat belt made per WW ONE.

My first mill Pamgram 400 lathe mill use for almost 10 years before getting a mill.

Today setting one on mini lathe for second mill. So I do not have to break down the setup on my other mill.


Dave

 

[bmac2]

Looking for either plans that show how to make this fixture or pictures of finished ones installed on a lathe. My friend that is restoring the old Atlas lathe was interested when I told him about this, and then I couldn't find a picture to show him.---Brian

Hi Brian, had enough winter yet? We’re still stuck in the tail end of the polar vortex with lows around -30 in AB.
I downloaded these plans off the web out of a 1949 issue of Science And Mechanics before I got my mini mill.
The attached PDF is a bit scratchy but readable. It’s all from bar stock so no castings and I think with careful layout and a little loctite it would make a very serviceable vertical slide.

 

[SmithDoor]

Hi Brian, had enough winter yet? We’re still stuck in the tail end of the polar vortex with lows around -30 in AB.
I downloaded these plans off the web out of a 1949 issue of Science And Mechanics before I got my mini mill.
The attached PDF is a bit scratchy but readable. It’s all from bar stock so no castings and I think with careful layout and a little loctite it would make a very serviceable vertical slide.

View attachment 164731

You use compound slide.

I saw years ago on a mini lathe a guy used a heavy angle iron. (2½"x2½"x¼" angle iron)
Drill holes to fit the compound and lathe.
Use the to machine the angle square. This was done buy a simply fly cutter made for the job.

First bolted the angle to where compound was . Then flip around giving and machining the other side a true 90°

Dave

 

[timo_gross]

One question is: What is the goal?
If getting some milling capabilities for the lathe is the main goal, I would probably just go for something similar to above shown bar stock design.
A good option to replace the dove tail would be some linear rails. They are not that expensive anymore.

If the goal is a good looking restored vintage machine, bar stock and linear rails would not be a good solution.
A toolspindle for the attachment and some dividing option for the head stock make it a 4 Axis machine. Perfect for milling gears and such.

I think I need to make a milling attachment for the lathe on the weekend.

 

[SmithDoor]

One question is: What is the goal?
If getting some milling capabilities for the lathe is the main goal, I would probably just go for something similar to above shown bar stock design.
A good option to replace the dove tail would be some linear rails. They are not that expensive anymore.

If the goal is a good looking restored vintage machine, bar stock and linear rails would not be a good solution.
A toolspindle for the attachment and some dividing option for the head stock make it a 4 Axis machine. Perfect for milling gears and such.

I think I need to make a milling attachment for the lathe on the weekend.

Before WW2 there lot of ATTACHMENTS for lathes .
In including indexing for gears making cutters
Thd lathes was over 16" swing..

Today it is just mill ATTACHMENT for upto 9" lathes.

The mill ATTACHMENT I purchased was under $65.00 it lot easier at cost .

Dave

 

[trlvn]

Looking for either plans that show how to make this fixture or pictures of finished ones installed on a lathe. My friend that is restoring the old Atlas lathe was interested when I told him about this, and then I couldn't find a picture to show him.---Brian

I would suggest you talk him out of it! Seriously, such lathe attachments are a very poor substitute for even the smallest, cheapest actual milling machine. Every setup takes a lot of time and then the whole thing is the opposite of rigid. Even with a minuscule depth of cut the surface finish will be very poor.

Very few people want a combination lathe-mill and they are miles better than a milling accessory.

IMHO

Craig

 

[Mike Ginn]

I must reinforce the points made by Craig. I have both types of Myford vertical slides and apart from the rigidity, or lack off, the setups are very difficult. I built my first Stuart V10 using these and immediately purchased a proper mill. I have seen lathe attachments which bolt onto the rear of the base casting and have a vertical round column and then rely on the xy of the lathe slides. Setup is much easier but there is a lack of rigidity. The little Unimat uses this system but I have never seen it on larger lathes.
Mike

 

[djc]

Another honourable mention should go to a Japanese machinist, who is on YouTube, called Swap Lamp. He does a lot of milling-type operations on his lathe. Having a big, heavy rigid lathe helps.

This is an idea for a vertical slide that I had not seen until his video:



There is a book in the UK Workshop Practice series, called 'Milling on the lathe' by Arnold Throp. That is useful for some ideas. If you look hard enough, you will find a scanned pdf copy of it.

 

[Richard Hed]

I don't think there are many plans about for vertical slides as they require quite a bit of milling in their manufacture which makes them a bit of a chicken & egg subject. Usually bought which then allows you to do the milling for other items of tooling.

Yes, no doubt they need some milling, however, there is quite a lot of info out there on building them. One can build one without much milling if he/she uses nuts and bolts to hold it together or even weld parts. I was going to build one but ended up buying one from India and then someone gave me a second one. (Odd, isn't it that the one from India, I cannot find!)
There ARE plans out there for making them. I might efven have some plans I have stashed in files somewhere.

 

[SmithDoor]

Another honourable mention should go to a Japanese machinist, who is on YouTube, called Swap Lamp. He does a lot of milling-type operations on his lathe. Having a big, heavy rigid lathe helps.

This is an idea for a vertical slide that I had not seen until his video:



There is a book in the UK Workshop Practice series, called 'Milling on the lathe' by Arnold Throp. That is useful for some ideas. If you look hard enough, you will find a scanned pdf copy of it.

Looks great
But he use a Bridge Port to make the lathe mill.

Now if you do not have a Bridge Port mill now what?

Dave

 

[SmithDoor]

Yes, no doubt they need some milling, however, there is quite a lot of info out there on building them. One can build one without much milling if he/she uses nuts and bolts to hold it together or even weld parts. I was going to build one but ended up buying one from India and then someone gave me a second one. (Odd, isn't it that the one from India, I cannot find!)
There ARE plans out there for making them. I might efven have some plans I have stashed in files somewhere.

My manufacturing shop had a mill used only for tool and die work.

I would build jig to mount tool post of turret lathes to do milling.

The turret lathes only had square tool post . But Aloris makes hold for one of the sides of tool post.

This gave my a little vertical for fine adjustment movement on the jig . We made thousands parts at time with this setup. The machinist I used was welder first time running a machine tool other than a drill press.

The Aloris type can be used as mill in lathe.

Dave